Residents Voice Opinions On Arlington City Council Term Limits At Sunday Meeting

ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – There’s heated debate at a rare Sunday evening council meeting in Arlington over term limits. Council members are faced with a proposal that threatens their time in office.

There were over a hundred passionate speakers on both sides of the issue. There were so many people that speaking time had to be cut down from three minutes to two.

After a one-hour delay in executive session, the speaker went up one-by-one to voice their support and opposition to a petition effort that could shorten city council members’ time in office.

Most of those in attendance pleased with council members to not fight the petition effort.

Zack Maxwell led the effort to gather over 11,000 signatures to let citizens vote on restricting mayor and council members to six years in office. The citizen-led measure calls for three two-year terms.

“Fresh ideas are always need in government I believe. And we have some people who have been in office since I was 10. That’s a long time to be in office,” said Maxwell.

The mayor and council members want their own proposal on the ballot, giving them nine years and letting them come back after taking three years off.

“I think if you have a person who’s on the council who’s done a good job, maybe there’s come consideration for them to be able to come back and run again. I do understand having limits for a person who’s not on for a lifetime,” said Maurice Washington.

City council will vote “yay” or “nay” on the resolutions Sunday evening, and the second and final reading will be held Monday evening.